In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Moria was the name given at the beginning of the late Third Age to an enormous and by then very ancient underground complex in north-western Middle-earth, comprising a vast network of tunnels, chambers, mines and huge halls or mansions, that ran under and ultimately through the Misty Mountains.

There, for many thousands of years prior to that time, had lived the Dwarf clan known as the Longbeards. Moria's original name, that given it by the dwarves in their own language, was Khazad-dûm, which translates as The Dwarrow Delf, "dwarrows" being an archaic English plural of "dwarf", and "Delf" an archaic alternative to "Delving", from the verb "Delve", to dig.

Such was its size and fame that throughout its long history Khazad-dûm was well known by many peoples of North-western Middle-Earth, who translated its name into their own languages; Hadhodrond (pronounced HATH-o-drond, with "th" as in this) by the Sindar, Casarrondo by the Noldor and Phurunargian in the Common Speech,

Khazad-dûm earned its later sobriquet Moria, meaning "Black Chasm" or "Black Pit", from Sindarinmor="black" and iâ="void, abyss, pit",[1] after it was abandoned by the Dwarves following the emergence in its depths of a demonic entity of great power, the Balrog.

It has been suggested that Tolkien—an ardent Catholic—may have used this name as a reference to the mountains of Moriah, where (according to the book of Genesis) Abraham was to sacrifice his son, Isaac. However, Tolkien categorically denied such derivations, saying that "As to Moria…it means…Black Chasm [in Sindarin]. …As for the 'land of Morīah' (note stress): that has no connection (even 'externally') whatsoever."[2]

From Mount Gundabad, Durin's growing clan "spread southward down the vales of Anduin", all the while "under attack from the orcs of Morgoth".[3] According to legend, Durin ultimately found "a glen of shadows between two great arms of the mountains, above which three white peaks were shining".[4] Within this heavily wooded valley, a long series of short waterfalls led down to a long, oval lake, which appeared to have a magical quality: "There, like jewels sunk in the deep shone glinting stars, though sunlight was in the sky above".[4] Perceiving these stars as a crown glittering above his head, Durin took this as an auspicious sign, and named the lake Kheled-zâram, the 'Mirrormere'.

The three peaks overshadowing the lake he named Barazinbar 'the Redhorn', Zirakzigil 'the Silvertine' and Bundushathûr, 'Cloudyhead'. The icy cold springs below the lake he called Kibil-nâla (the source of the Silverlode), and the valley itself he gave he named Azanulbizar, the Dimrill Dale. Durin chose the eastward-facing caves above Kheled-zâram[5] as the earliest beginnings of his new stronghold.

All of these places became revered amongst Durin's people in later days. His descendants erected a rune-carved stone monolith - Durin's Stone - on the site where he had first looked into the Mirrormere, and although it had become indecipherably weatherworn by the end of the Third Age — broken, cracked and faded — the influence of Durin I, the founding king of Khazad-dûm, was never forgotten.

The long reign of Khazad-dûm's first king was a golden age, remembered as Durin's Day (this name was also applied to the Dwarvish New Year). During that period Khazad-dûm grew continuously in size and population, until it became the "greatest of all the mansions of the Dwarves",[6] even before the return of the Noldor to Middle-earth. By that time, Khazad-dûm was already "a name and a rumour from the words of the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains"[6] to all the Eldar of Beleriand.

After his death, the reputation of Durin's realm continued to grow, not merely due to his spiritual ascendancy over the other Fathers of the Dwarves as the eldest amongst them, or the Dwarrowdelf's growing size, but to its great wealth, which was founded upon the uniquely precious metal mithril, which was universally prized yet found nowhere else except faraway Númenor.

Khazad-dûm played no part in the wars of Beleriand, and in fact gained a respite from orc attacks throughout the First Age, "when Morgoth needed all his strength" elsewhere.[3] The Longbeards maintained contact with all the other six dwarf clans, and after early Men arrived in Rhovanion, Khazad-dûm quickly began trading with them, exchanging the products of their growing metallurgical and masonry skills for food, to the great profit of both peoples.

The eventual death of Durin 'the Deathless' occurred before the end of the First Age. He was buried in a tomb in Khazad-dûm.

Early in the Second Age, Khazad-dûm's realm of Longbeards was enriched in culture, skills and population by large numbers of refugees from Belegost and Nogrod. Belegost and Nogrod were also great cities of Dwarves, but they had been ruined at the end of the First Age, along with the destruction of most of Beleriand in the cataclysmic final battle against Morgoth. The Dwarves of those cities struggled for forty further years after the cataclysms, before many of them made the difficult decision to leave their homelands behind and cross Eriador, to the now great and ancient Dwarrowdelf. The Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod were not Longbeards, but Broadbeams and Firebeards. Whether they remained separate clans or groups within their new home, or became merged with the Longbeards, is not known.

At the same time, Orcs once again became "well-armed and very numerous, cruel, savage, and reckless in assault. In the battles that followed the Dwarves were outnumbered, and though they were the most redoubtable warriors of all the Speaking Peoples they were glad to make alliance with Men."[3] The Orcs were all the more easily defeated by the new combination of Khazad-dûm's heavy infantry and the horsed archers provided by Men, and the Longbeards consequently came to dominate the northern and central Hithaeglir and the lands east of there, although Khazad-dûm had always "regarded the Iron Hills, The Ered Mithrin, and the east dales of the Misty Mountains as their own land".[3] Ultimately, these Men then assisted the dwarves of Khazad-dûm "in the ordering of the lands that they had secured".[3]

With the foundation of the Noldorin realm Eregion to the west of Khazad-dûm around the year 700,[7] friendly relations between the Longbeards and the Elves became firmly established. Many of the Elves then became involved in the development of Khazad-dûm's mansions as a consequence, and it "became far more beautiful"[7] during this period.

This friendship also resulted in a massive westwards extension of the subterranean realm of Khazad-dûm. Its habitable parts remained in the eastward side, but passages were delved through miles of rock that terminated at a gigantic stone portal — the West Gate. This stood on the borders of Eregion, and "opened out into their country and was chiefly used by them."[3]Celebrimbor, the Lord of Eregion, used ithildin lettering on this gate on behalf of its builder: his friend Narvi,[8] a great craftsman of Khazad-dûm. The inscription read, Im Narvi hain echant. Celebrimbor o Eregion teithant i thiw hin: "I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Eregion drew these signs."

The West Gate allowed the Elf lady Galadriel and her followers to pass eastwards through Khazad-dûm and establish Lothlórien downstream of Azanulbizar. Galadriel's rule enabled Nandorin elves to return to Lothlórien; they had earlier evacuated the area to escape Khazad-dûm's growing power.

All of the Dwarrowdelf was originally illuminated by many "shining lamps of crystal",[5] although the halls of the highest level were also lit with windows and shafts carved through the mountain sides. These levels lay between flights of fifty or more stone steps, with seven hollowed out of the mountains above ground level, and many more subterranean levels — or 'Deeps' — beneath the Great Gates at the head of the Dimrill Dale. Every level comprised a multitude of arched passages, chambers and many pillared halls, often with "black walls, polished and smooth as glass".[5] Below the level of the Gates lay mines, treasuries and even dungeons,[5] although far below the lowest Deep of Khazad-dûm, lay primordial tunnels in perpetual darkness, gnawed by 'nameless things' that had lived there since the earliest beginnings of Arda. Few if any actually ever glimpsed these creatures, and no description of them is extant (with the possible exception of the Watcher in the Water, which Gandalf suggested may have come from these regions.)

One important feature of the Dwarrowdelf was the defensive structure known as Durin's Bridge, "a slender bridge of stone, without kerb or rail",[5] that spanned a fifty foot wide chasm of indeterminate depth, allowing enemy soldiers to cross it only in single file (one after another), not side by side. Another, steeped in legend, was the Endless Stair, which ascended "from the lowest dungeon to the highest peak",[5] where it terminated within Durin's Tower, carved from the solid rock at the tip of Zirakzigil.

Afterwards, Sauron harboured deep hatred for Khazad-dûm and ordered his Orcs to trouble Durin's folk at every turn, even though "the halls of Khazad-dûm were too deep and strong and filled with a people too numerous and valiant for Sauron to conquer from without".[5] Despite this, "its people began to dwindle" from this time,[5] possibly due to the loss of foodstuffs that had been provided by Men in the vales of Anduin.

With the defeat of Sauron, Khazad-dûm was able to recover somewhat, and it was not until 1300 years later that the Longbeards came under renewed attacks by Orcs.[5] By that time, the more easily accessible veins of mithril had become exhausted, and Númenor had been long destroyed, leaving the deeper mines of Khazad-dûm as the only remaining known source of mithril.

With the passage of further centuries, the dwarves delved ever deeper, and eventually, in the year T.A. 1980 they at last disturbed or released at some great depth a Balrog, an ancient Maia loyal to Morgoth, forgotten, and dreadfully powerful. This balrog killed King Durin VI in that year, acquiring the name Durin's Bane, and in the following year it killed Náin I, his son and successor. The Dwarves were unable to defeat Durin's Bane, or even drive it away, for unenchanted steel and stone had no effect on the ancient being, and so the Longbeards were forced to flee Khazad-dûm in its entirety. Thereafter, Orcs of the Misty Mountains made Moria their home, whilst the Balrog reposed in its depths.

Many centuries later, in 2790, driven from Erebor by the dragon Smaug, Thrór, heir of Durin, attempted to re-enter his ancestral home despite warnings not to. He was slain by the Orc chieftain Azog, a murder that precipitated The War of the Dwarves and Orcs culminating in a bloody battle called the Battle of Azanulbizar outside Moria's eastern gates nine years later. The Dwarves were victorious and Azog himself was beheaded by Dáin II Ironfoot before the great orc could reach the safety of the gates, but the Dwarves had suffered great losses and remained unwilling to face Durin's Bane. Casualties were so high that the dwarves were unable to craft sufficient crypts for the slain, as was their wont, and were forced instead to burn their dead. The felling of trees to accomplish this was so great that the Valley of Azanulbizar (the "Dimrill Dale") was forever deforested. Those slain were honoured in future years with the appellation "Burned Dwarf". After this Pyrrhic victory, Thrór's son Thráin II attempted to re-enter the Mines, but Dáin stopped him and prophesied that some power other than the Dwarves must come before Durin's folk could return to Moria.

Towards the close of the Third Age a few generations later, the dwarf Balin led a company to reopen the city, including Flói, Óin, Ori, Frár, Lóni, and Náli, although Balin's mission was against King Dáin's wishes. At first all went well, but after five years the colony was destroyed by Orcs. King Dáin was then visited twice by a messenger from Mordor, offering to return the remaining three of the Seven dwarf rings and the realm of Moria, if Dáin would cooperate in finding the One Ring. The offer was refused, but it is not known whether Sauron "the base master of treachery",[5] had any power over Durin's Bane.

The Fellowship reluctantly passed through Moria in 3019, and although the Great Gates lay shattered by this date, they passed beyond Narvi's doors in the west only with difficulty and in great peril. Many of the long deserted lower Deeps had become flooded and inaccessible, and the Fellowship were gambling that most of its Orcs had been killed in the Battle of Five Armies a few decades earlier. After reaching the Chamber of Mazarbul towards the end of their journey, the Fellowship were attacked there by a Troll and many Orcs, before being approached by Durin's Bane itself. Gandalf confronted the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, near the remains of the Eastern Gates, where the two duelled briefly before plunging together into the abyss beneath it, allowing the rest of the Fellowship to escape. Though Gandalf and the Balrog survived the fall, both perished in the subsequent epic duel from the primordial depths below Moria to the tip of Zirakzigil, which ultimately demolished both the tower and the top of the Stair. Gandalf was afterwards resurrected as Gandalf the White.

Following their exile from Khazad-dûm, the Longbeard dwarves always yearned for their homeland, even after more than a thousand years had passed; Azanulbizar became "the deep-shadowed valley which we cannot forget",[5] just as they felt compelled to continue incorporating "the image of those mountains into many works of metal and stone, and into many songs and tales. They stand tall in our dreams.."[5]

With the destruction of the Balrog, the way was at last clear for the Longbeards to reclaim the Dwarrowdelf however, and it is told that a few centuries into the Fourth Age, Durin VII – a descendant (some sources say the son) of Thorin III Stonehelm – at last led his people back to their longed-for ancient homeland, retrieving what they could of Khazad-dûm's once-mighty riches.

The East-gate was the original and main entrance to Moria; it was also known as the Dimrill Gate.

The Dimrill Gate had two great doors that hung from tall doorposts. Gandalf entered Moria through the Dimrill Gate while searching for Thráin II who disappeared in T.A. 2845. Aragorn also passed through the Dimrill Gate during his journeys in Middle-earth.[5]

Gollum entered the Dimrill Gate in 'August' 3018 and made his way through Moria to the West-gate. The Fellowship entered Moria through the West-gate on 13th 'January' 3019, and journeyed eastward followed by Gollum. Gandalf confronted the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm and fell into the abyss. Aragorn led the others out of Moria through the Dimrill Gate.

The Doors of Durin, also called the West-door or the West-gate of Moria, were created in the Second Age by the Dwarf Narvi, as the western entrance to Khazad-dûm. In these times, they stood open and were guarded by a doorwarden, allowing free and friendly trade between the Dwarves and the neighbouring Elf-realm of Eregion, established circa S.A. 750. A highway, the Elven-way, was built from the Doors of Durin to the capital of Eregion.

The Durin, king of Khazad-dûm, named on West-gate is most likely to have been Durin II.[9]

The doors of the West-gate were made so that, when shut, they were from the outside invisible and unopenable by physical means. However to aid friendly visitors, the gateway was flanked by two giant holly-trees, and the doors were decorated with a design which became visible by uttering a password. This design contained a second password which enabled the doors to magically open. From the inside, the doors could be opened by normal means.

The design on the front of the doors was engraved in ithildin, which mirrored only starlight and moonlight. When the moon was out and ancient words long-forgotten were spoken, fine silver lines would appear, outlining the secret door. The designs on the doors, which were made by the Elf Celebrimbor, included a frame of a pillar at either side, and an arch at the top. In the centre there was: a hammer and anvil, surmounted by a crown and seven stars (the emblems of Durin); two trees bearing crescent moons (representing the High Elves); and a single star (the Star of House of Fëanor, of which Celebrimbor was a member).

In the original novel The Fellowship of the Ring, a comment by Merry led Gandalf to think that the message was actually intended literally: "Say 'friend' and enter." He then spoke the Elvish word for "friend" (mellon) and the doors opened. In the 2001 film, though, Frodo had the inspiration to ask for that word and saw it as a riddle.

Shortly after Gandalf opened the doors, the Watcher in the Water attacked the Fellowship as they entered the Mines, ripping down the holly trees that flanked the doors and barricading the gate; the Watcher also shut the doors leaving the Fellowship trapped in Moria. In the film, the Watcher caused a cave-in instead, apparently destroying the gate.

The Chamber of Mazarbul, the chamber of records, was a room in Moria containing the Tomb of Balin. It was located to the right of a pathway that branched off the north end of the Twenty-first hall. When the Fellowship found the chamber as they passed through Moria, Balin's tomb was located inside it, and a bright shaft of sunlight streamed in from outside the mountain to land directly on the tomb. There were two stone doors leading into the chamber. Many deep recesses were cut into the chamber rock containing chests that had been recently looted by the orcs inhabiting Moria. In one of these was found the Book of Mazarbul. The book told of Balin's expedition to Moria. The last words in the book were written by Ori and he wrote: "We have barred the gates, but can not hold them for long. We cannot get out. They have taken the Bridge and the Second Hall. Frár and Lóni and Náli fell there. The pool is up to the wall at the Westgate. The Watcher in the Water took Óin. We cannot get out. The end comes. Drums, drums in the deep. They are coming." It was in the Chamber of Mazarbul that the Fellowship engaged in a brief fight with a band of Moria orcs and where Gandalf made his first stand against the Balrog.[5]

The Bridge of Khazad-dûm is a narrow stone bridge crossing a chasm within the eastern gates of Moria. It lends its name to Chapter 5 in Book II of The Lord of the Rings, in which Gandalf referred to it as Durin's Bridge.[11]

The bridge was built to guard the East Gate of Khazad-dûm. It narrowly spanned a deep chasm built under the high arches common in Khazad-dûm. This gave the bridge powerful defensive value, for if an enemy were to breach the East Gate of Khazad-dûm, he would be forced to cross the span of the Bridge (some fifty feet) in single file line, exposing the crossing enemy to the arrows of the Dwarven defenders.[11]

The Eastern end of the bridge connected to the First Hall and through that toward the East Gate of Khazad-dûm. The Western end of the bridge connected to the superstructure of the main city itself.‹The templateME-fact is being considered for deletion.›[citation needed]

Seeing that the Fellowship was over matched, Gandalf challenged the Balrog on the span of the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. In the course of this fight, Gandalf shattered the Bridge with his staff, allowing the rest of the Fellowship to flee out of Moria by the Eastern Gate while he was dragged into the chasm below with the Balrog.[11]

The Endless Stair rose from the lowest dungeon of Moria to Durin's Tower at the summit of Celebdil. The Endless Stair was of such legendary status among Dwarves that some considered it mythical, but Gandalf confirmed its existence to Gimli when he recounted his battle with Durin's Bane (a balrog). Durin's Tower and the top of the Stair were destroyed in that struggle. The height of the Stair is not known, but Gandalf said that it climbed many thousands of steps in an unbroken spiral.[12] The Stair was clearly of epic proportions, as it allowed Gandalf and the Balrog to ascend from one of Moria's lowest Deeps to the pinnacle of one of the tallest mountains in Middle-earth.

The roguelike computer game Moria was modelled on The Lord of the Rings events. The goal in the game is to reach the bottom of a maze-like simulation of the Mines of Moria and kill a Balrog. Moria has also been featured in board games such as the Lord of the Rings (board game) created by Reiner Knizia.

Several other roguelikes and MUDs feature Moria as a dungeon similar to the one described in the book, usually containing a creature akin to a Balrog.

The first expansion pack of the MMORPGThe Lord of the Rings Online named Mines of Moria takes place almost entirely in Moria, which has several levels. The uppermost is the path of Durin's Way, which pierces the mountain to reach the cliffs of Zirak-Zigil. The main levels of Moria span from the Doors of Durin to Dolven-View, Zelem-Melek, Nud-Melek and the East doors, known as the First Hall. Further down in the subterranean realm are the Silvertine Lodes and the Redhorn Lodes, and the furthest depths contain the submerged Water-Works, the fiery Flaming Deeps, and the Foundations of Stone, where Gandalf and the Balrog fought before ascending the Endless Stair.